The End of the World as We Know It: Exile and Hope

3^rd Sunday of Advent

December 16, 2012

8:00 and 9:00 only

Zephaniah 3:14-20; Luke 3:7-18

The End of the World as We Know It: Exile and Hope

There’s a saying that I always thought I followed pretty well: listen to your elders.  Ever since I knew I was preaching this morning, Pastor Ken tried to advise me to go with the Old Testament reading, the passage from Zephaniah that we just read.  But I said no, I’m going to continue the Gospel narrative, continue the story of John the Baptist and the end of the world as we know it.  Well, yesterday morning I realized that that wasn’t the focus of the Word of God for us this morning.  I needed to concentrate on the passage from Zephaniah.  Y’all needed to hear the Good News found in this passage from Zephaniah, not lessons that we learned in kindergarten about saying you’re sorry, and sharing, and playing fair.  That’s a good Word, too, but the Word of the Lord for us this morning isn’t about what John tells the crowds gathered at the river for baptism.  The Word of the Lord for us this morning is what Zephaniah has to say to those in exile, and that is a word of hope. 

We need hope today.  Our world is in desperate need of hope.  Our lives are in desperate need of hope.  Our church is in desperate need of hope.  Hope.  In the poem by Emily Dickinson, in which she compares hope to a bird, “hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words…”  It is scriptural to sing without words, because sometimes the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that are too deep for words.[1]  Sometimes there aren’t words.  However, this morning, we’re going to try to put some words to hope. 

We’re going to use the words from Zephaniah.  He’s one of the minor prophets, stuck in there between Habakkuk and Haggai.  He’s one of the prophets who writes in exile to those who are in exile.  Ever felt like you’ve been in exile?  It’s the phrase that’s stuck with me from the song we sing when lighting the Advent candles – “O come, O come Emanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here.”  Have you known that mourning of lonely exile?  That barrenness?  That depth of despair?  “Until the Son of God appear.”  The Son of God, Jesus, appears and ransoms us in his coming.  Jesus brings hope and healing and restoration and an end to our exile, an end to our isolation, an end to our despair.  Eventually.  Israel was in exile for hundreds of years.  The words of hope that Zephaniah offers come during exile, but not even at the worst point of exile.  It gets worse for Israel before it gets better.  Exile is not an easy place to be.  It’s like limbo.  An in-between place.  Somewhere between that already and not yet that we talked about a few weeks ago.  Exile is not a place where you want to be, it is not home, and yet there you are, trying to hold on to hope.  It can feel like the end of the world.

What does Zephaniah say to those in exile?  “The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.  On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak.  The Lord, your God, is in your midst,” do not fear.   The Lord “will remove disaster from you.”  The Lord “will remove disaster from you.”  Promise.  “You shall fear disaster no more.”  Promise.  The Revised Standard Version says, “you shall fear evil no more.”  The Lord “will save the lame and gather the outcast, and will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.”  In that day, the Lord will change our sorrows into joy.  The Lord will do this.  He has promised. 

There are three things here to grab onto.  First, “the Lord, your God, is in your midst.”  God is present with God’s people.  Emanuel means God with us, God is here.  God is in our midst.  God’s in the midst of our mourning.  God’s in the midst of our pain.  God’s in the midst of our questions and anger and despair.  God is here, in our place of exile.  God has not abandoned us.  God sent his Son, in the form of a baby, a sign of hope, a reminder of his presence.  God is here with us. 

Second, God is in active relationship with us.  Not only is Israel called to action, but God acts as well.  It’s a two-way street.  The relationship goes both ways, just like any healthy relationship.  There’s open communication and time spent together and mutual love and respect.  You get mad at each other sometimes, yeah, but you keep talking, you work things out.  You stay committed to the relationship.  There’s a tendency in our culture today to leave something if you don’t like it.  Don’t like where you live?  Move.  Don’t like your job?  Get a new one.  Don’t like the hard work of marriage?  Get divorced.  Don’t like the preacher?  Leave the church.  Well that’s not God.  God is faithful, even when we aren’t.  God hangs around, even when we don’t.  God keeps the communication channels open, even when we don’t want to talk or to listen.  God loves and respects you even when you don’t love or respect him.  God isn’t just present, but is active. 

Third, in the final verse from Zephaniah is the promise that God will bring us home.  God will gather us in.  We are not abandoned.  We will not be left in exile forever.  Grief may be where you are now, and that’s ok.  You may not even want to be comforted now.  But God will wait, and keeps his arms open for when you’re ready.  The psalmist wrote that “weeping lasts for the night, but joy comes in the morning,”[2] and the morning will come.  I don’t know when.  But I will hold out that hope for you and keep the candle burning for you if you cannot do it yourself right now.  The morning will come.  God will bring you home.  Promise. 

In the meantime, hold on to the words from Zephaniah.  Do not fear.  Do not let your hands grow weak.  Hold on.  Keep the faith.  The Lord your God is in your midst.  Ask him the hard questions.  He can take it.  The conversation is important.  Be angry with him, question him, weep with him.  Be in relationship with him.  In the meantime… I don’t know how long the meantime’s going to last.  I don’t know how long “until the Son of God appears.”  This is one birth that cannot be induced.  We can’t decide, okay, I’m ready now, any day now God.  Instead we cry with the psalmist, “how long, O Lord?”[3]  How long must I be in exile?  How long must I hold out hope?  How long must I wait?  And that’s a faithful response.  It may be the end of the world as we know it, but God will gather us in and bring us home.  In that we trust and place our hope. 

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[1] Romans 8:26

[2] Psalm 30:5

[3] Psalm 13:1; 35:17; 89:46; 90:13; get the idea yet?

Where We're Going, We Don't Need: Roads

November 25, 2012

Christ the King/Reign of Christ

John 18:33-37; Revelation 1:4b-8

Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need: Roads

Has anyone ever done a Google search for “What would Jesus…” and see what it auto-fills in for you?  What would Jesus do, of course.  But there’s also What would Jesus drink?  What would Jesus buy?  What would Jesus tweet?  An interesting one that caught my eye is “What would Jesus drive?”  My answer is… Jesus would drive a DeLorean.  That flies.  Powered by a Mr. Fusion and garbage.  And he would have some seriously cool 1980’s shades.  You see, I was thinking about that phrase that’s at both the beginning and the end of our passage from Revelation, the God “who is and who was and who is to come,” and I was thinking about God being outside time, unlimited by time, “OUTATIME,” you might even say, like the license plate on the DeLorean, the time machine that Doc Brown builds.  In the “Back to the Future” movies, Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled through time and found a way to not be constricted to their own time in history, yet they still were limited by time.  There were still things they could and could not do without the risk of erasing themselves from history and preventing their ever being born.  God, on the other hand, doesn’t travel through time but is at every moment in time.  God is, here and now; God always was, at the beginning of time; and God is still to come, at the end of time.  If you want to know how that can be, well, it’s like what we say in the Great Thanksgiving when we have communion – pay attention next Sunday.  Pastor Ken and I invite you to declare with us “the mystery of faith”: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”  All at the same time.  Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.  Now, this three-times formula was often used in the Greek-speaking world to describe the eternity and immutability of the Greek gods.  For example, it was said that “Zeus was, Zeus is, and Zeus will be.”[1]  But, the difference for us as Christians is that we speak not only of God’s being but of his acts.  We say not merely that our God is, but that he comes, that he reigns.   

          This is God in the present tense.  Back in Exodus when Moses asks God for his name, what does God say?  I AM who I AM.  Present tense.  I AM.  Yet… that’s actually just how we’ve translated it.  The Hebrew can actually be translated into any verb tense.  I SHALL BE who I SHALL BE.  Or, I HAVE BEEN who I HAVE BEEN.  The great I AM encompasses all verb tenses.  How many of you have studied a second language?  One thing we often find out in learning another language that we don’t learn when studying English is the names of all the verb tenses.  Preterit.  Past Perfect.  Gerund.  Conditional.  There are some I don’t even know how to say in English because I learned them in Spanish class: pluscuamperfecto!  I remember in one of my Spanish classes in high school we had to take four verbs and conjugate them into every verb tense.  I think there were sixteen verb tenses on our charts!  Sixteen verb tenses.[2]  That’s a lot of different states of time.  And yet in the statement “I AM who I AM”, God puts God’s self in every verb tense; at every moment in time.  God, in Christ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is always with us.  God is, here and now. 

The great I AM is, is come and does reign.  Jesus Christ is the one who is, the one who reigns, here and now.  Today is Christ the King Sunday and we not only look forward to Christ’s kingdom coming, “thy kingdom come,” we also celebrate his reign today.  In the present.  In the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, we find this promise from Jesus: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[3]  Jesus is always with us.  Granted, we often question it.  Lord, where are you in this midst of this suffering?  Lord, why do you let bad things happen to me?  I don’t know the detailed answer for every particular situation, but Jesus is there, crying with you, keeping you safe, guiding you even when you can’t see it.  Other times, we forget Jesus is with us.  Sometimes we pray, “Lord, be with us,” when he already is.  I’m guilty of that, too.  A better prayer would be, “Lord, make us aware of your presence,” or “Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit.”  Jesus is already with you.  Jesus is already here.  We don’t need to ask him to come.  He’s here in the good times and in the bad.  In times when we don’t understand what’s going on and why this is happening and in times when his hand is crystal clear in our lives.  Jesus is king, and his kingdom is not of this world but it’s breaking into this world, past, present, and future. 

God in three persons is the one whose being and whose acts embrace all time.  God was there at the beginning of time.  Genesis 1 tells us that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.”[4]  And we know Jesus was there, too, from the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word (that’s Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”[5]  God, in Christ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is the one who always was.  Who was there when Moses parted the Red Sea?  God.  Who was there when David brought down Goliath?  God.  Who was there when Jesus’ disciples discovered an empty tomb?  God.    There is a reason we call God Ancient of Days, eternal, everlasting, Rock of Ages.  Lee and I visited a church in Raleigh while I was on maternity leave, and a youth sign we saw put it nicely: God is [pause] epic.  God is so big, he is the one who exclusively exists at the beginning of time and at the end of all time.  God transcends human history, he transcends our whole space/time continuum.  He is outside of time, beyond time, unrestricted by time.  And because he transcends it, therefore, he controls it.  This is the all-powerful, almighty God, who always was, who is, and who is still to come. 

That paradox, or mystery, is something we touched on a lot at seminary, and in shorthand we referred to it as the “already/not yet.”  Jesus has already come; Jesus has not yet come.  Jesus already came in first century Palestine; Jesus’ second coming has not yet happened.  Already… not yet.  Jesus already inaugurated his kingdom, but it has not yet come to completion.  That’s why Jesus says his kingdom is not of this world, and yet we get glimpses of it sometimes.  At IFC, we get glimpses; in communion, we get glimpses; in acts of kindness, we get glimpses; in worship, we get glimpses.  Jesus’ kingdom has already come, Jesus is king, and yet we still pray “thy kingdom  come.”  And not only has his kingdom already started, in the passage from Revelation it said that Jesus “made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father.”[6]  We are a kingdom; we are priests.  We are to be kings and priests.  As this royal priestly community, also called the church, we represent and signify the rule of God that is already present in the world.  We declare that Christ has come.  We declare that Christ is king.  And we declare with faith that Christ will come again.  We do this in faith, with “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”[7]  We do this because we believe Christ isn’t just any old king, Christ’s sovereignty is the highest one on earth!  We believe Christ’s kingship is the one abiding and universal kingship. 

Christ has been king, is king, and will be king.  Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.  Christ is the one who is still to come.  Past, present, and future.  This is the God we serve.  This is the God we worship.  King Jesus.  The One who doesn’t need roads because he was there before there were roads and he’ll be there after the roads are gone.  And where we’re going, we don’t need roads, not because of any flying car, a half-crazed scientist who hit his head on the toilet, or even really cool 1980’s shades, but because God is already there and he will safely lead us there.  Our future is in God’s hands.  He is in control of our history.  May we recognize that our life is in God’s hands and live according to God’s kingdom, catching glimpses of it and creating glimpses of it, because Jesus is the everlasting king. 

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[1] Boring, Revelation, 75.

[2] After the 11:00 service a retired Spanish teacher in the congregation left me a note to let me know that pluscuamperfecto is the pluperfect tense and she listed eighteen verb tenses, although she put questions marks next to two of them.

[3] Matthew 28:20

[4] Genesis 1:1-2

[5] John 1:1

[6] Revelation 1:6

[7] Hebrews 11:1

Pregnancy Pictures

This post should have been written in August.  I think most if not everyone who reads this blog knows that I was pregnant and now have a 4 week old.  This is my reflection on my struggle to understand why folks wanted to see pictures of me pregnant, because it took me almost the whole 9 months to understand why.  It started around the 4th month, when a church member who does photography offered to do a pregnancy shoot.  My response was "thanks, but no thanks, I don't want to remember my body like this."  The church member laughed.  Pregnancy, for me, anyway, was weird.  My body was doing things I didn't understand.  Most of my shoes didn't fit.  I had to stop wearing my wedding ring (which still will not go back on).  I started wearing maternity clothes early not because I had to but because their loose style was so much more comfortable.  Being pregnant was weird and my body felt abnormal.  Although, as I type that word, I realize that what it was doing was very normal for a woman's body.  My body knew what it was doing, even though I didn't.

But that church member was not the only one who wanted pictures of me pregnant.  Others wanted to see pregnancy pictures and for a long time the only one that existed was one of my hand as I blocked my husband's camera's view of me.  Why take a picture of my body being so weird?  Why do folks want to see me pregnant?  Wouldn't they rather wait to see the baby? 

My other reason for resisting is that I have friends who cannot get pregnant, have trouble getting pregnant, or are not even in a position to consider getting pregnant, but wish they were.  I did not and do not want to flaunt my pregnancy and baby. 

However, in August, I began to understand the desire for pregnancy pictures.  One Sunday at the contemporary service when I gave the announcements, I also introduced myself as the associate pastor and added that yes, I was pregnant.  In August, we get a fair number of new visitors because of the school year starting, plus church members returning from summer vacations, and I wanted to dispel the potentially distracting question of "is she overweight or is she pregnant?"  The church responded to my introduction by applauding.  I was not expecting that.  And as August went on, I began to realize that it wasn't that folks took delight in my gaining 30 pounds or the weird things my body was doing.  Instead, folks took delight in the new life that was underway.  Folks were excited for my husband and me and for the coming baby.  I learned with my arthritis that dressing nicer can often help you feel better, and so here is a picture of me at 37 weeks and feeling as beautiful as I ever felt while pregnant. I think the pearls helped :)

The Wrestling Match

Psalm 13:2a
"How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?" (NIV)
"How long must I bear pain in my soul?" (NRSV)

I wrestle with my thoughts so often.  I have trouble letting them go.  I stew on them.  I can't move past them.  And they're always negative thoughts that I hold on to the longest.  Pain, hurts, suffering, injustice, abuse.  I wrestle and my mind gets stuck.  Sometimes because of hormones, sometimes because of fatigue, sometimes because of sheer stubbornness.  I don't want to move on.  I don't want to let it go.  I want the injustices done to me to be atoned for, to be avenged, to be corrected - and then some.  I want to wallow in my misery and for everyone to acknowledge that it is justified, that my misery is self-righteous, this is how I ought to respond.

But not everyone will do that.  Most will acknowledge it's justified.  Some will wallow with you.  But sometimes you meet someone who responds to injustice with grace and love.  They may be wrestling with their thoughts on the inside, but outwardly their words and their actions reflect nothing but grace.  That's not mind over matter.  It's more like mind over mind.  Yes, this is what I think and feel, but that's not how I'm going to act.  My speech is going to be gracious.  My actions are going to be gracious.  Hypocrisy?  Maybe.  Or just choosing a better way.  Choosing to get past those thoughts.  Deciding that pain in your soul is not the last word about you.  It's not usually the easiest thing to do, especially if that pain runs deep.  But "I trust in God's unfailing, steadfast love... for he has been good to me" (Psalm 13:6).

Don't Paint Your Face with a Screwdriver*

(*Special thanks to the Van Deven family for providing such great sermon illustrations!)

1 Kings 3:3-14; Ephesians 5:15-20

August 19, 2012

My new favorite blog to read this summer is written by the husband of a friend of mine from college.  It’s called “The Parenting Dad.”[1]  After their third child was born last year, they decided it made the most sense for them for my friend to work full time and for her husband to be a stay-at-home dad.  Around the same time, they started a Facebook page of “Rules I Thought I’d Never Have to Make,” which eventually evolved into this blog.  In this blog, my friend’s husband, Louie, expounds upon some of those rules, tells stories, and offers tongue-in-cheek parenting advice, such as “If your kids act up at the vet, you get seen quicker,” and “You can save yourself a full load of laundry by keeping the kids topless during meals.”  Other advice is aimed at the kids, like “Don’t take off your underwear at the table” and, of course, [pause] “Don’t paint your face with a screwdriver.”  

Some of these stories are familiar to anyone who’s worked with kids and others are unique to being a stay-at-home dad.  These are comments Louie gets in public from folks who assume he’s either divorced or laid off and that’s why he has the kids on a weekday at Walmart.  A large part of my fascination with this blog is simply that I’m preparing for my own first child and I’m soaking up the wisdom found in these hilarious stories.  Whenever you’re starting on a new venture, it’s good to seek out wisdom and advice.  And that’s precisely what Solomon does in our Old Testament reading this morning.  Solomon has just been made king, succeeding his father King David, and he knows he is new at this and needs help.  Just as there is no instruction manual for being a parent, there’s no instruction manual for being a king, either.  Solomon tells God that he is “only a little child” and asks God for wisdom in order to govern God’s people.[2] 

            Solomon’s reason in asking for wisdom was in order to govern God’s people.  He knows that his early rule was flawed.  After all, he was offering sacrifices in the high places, which was against the laws laid out in Deuteronomy.[3]  The sacrifices were supposed to be offered in Jerusalem, not somewhere like Gibeon.  So, you need wisdom to be a good leader, whether you’re leading in your workplace, in the community, at school, a small group at church, or in your home.  Solomon’s request for wisdom is wise.  You need wisdom to lead.  I’ve mentioned before that when my husband and I got our dog, we started watching “The Dog Whisperer” on TV.  Cesar Millan is full of advice for dog owners to become good pack leaders.  The episode that has stayed with me the most is one in which he worked with a lady who had done some acting and he asked her about some of the different roles she’d had.  He stopped her when she mentioned playing Queen Cleopatra and said that’s who you need to channel when you walk your dog.  Walk your dog, lead as if you are the Queen, and your dog will behave accordingly.  This doesn’t mean walking as if too snobby to look at your dog, but walking with authority, assuming you will be obeyed, giving guidance, and offering corrections when disobeyed.  Last fall, my husband and I went to see Cesar when he came to Raleigh and the question-and-answer session was quite interesting.  There was one lady who raised an issue she was having with her dog’s eating and as Cesar asked more questions, the lady gradually realized what she was doing wrong at mealtime – Cesar didn’t even have to tell her!  To lead your dog, to be a leader at school or at work or at church, you need the wisdom to make the right choices at the right times.  And there are lots of people out there willing to offer you their wisdom.  But how do you know when it’s wisdom and when it’s not?  All that glitters is not gold, and all advice you receive may not be wise.  Although I will say, I am counting on the parenting advice y’all give me as being useful.  Just throwing that out there.  Some advice seems obvious, like “Don’t paint your face with a screwdriver,” and yet there are times it still has to be said.  To discern between the wise and the unwise requires intelligence and experience, which brings me to my second point.

            You also need wisdom to be a good learner.  Whether you’re currently in school or you’re a life-long learner, you still need wisdom.  You need wisdom to decide what you’re going to study, what new technique might bring your hobby to the next level of skill, what new trick you want to learn.  The philosopher Socrates had a saying: “I know nothing except that I know nothing.”  Before you can learn something new, you must first acknowledge that you don’t know it.  When you’re in class or in a small group, you need wisdom to figure out what questions to ask that will promote the discussion and continue the conversation.  I imagine we’ve all been in settings where someone asks a questions that sounds wise, maybe it has big words in it or they’re trying to show off what they know, but the question isn’t helpful to the group.  The question might be related to the topic, but it doesn’t enhance anyone’s understanding of the topic.  Wise questions are important as is knowing and admitting when and what you don’t know.  It can take courage to admit you don’t know something.  It takes wisdom to know you don’t know.  And then you can go study it!  It also takes wisdom to figure out how to integrate what you know with the situation at hand.  This may mean there are times you speak up and times you are silent.  Or it may mean a mental connecting the dots as you relate what you know to something new and develop some new brain synapses.  Louie thought that paint can was empty, that’s why he put the screwdriver in it.  Now he knows that even when he thinks something may be empty, a two year old will still find something at the bottom to play with.  Or, if you continue reading 1 Kings 3, you get the story of Solomon’s wise ruling between the two prostitutes about whose baby was alive.  Solomon had to take into consideration everything he knew about the situation and about a mother’s love for her baby to make that ruling.  Look it up and read it after church, it’s a really interesting story. 

            Finally, you need wisdom to discern good from evil and this is part of Solomon’s request for wisdom.  Solomon doesn’t use the word “wisdom” in his request, depending on the translation you read, he asks for an understanding or discerning mind, and the ability to distinguish between good and evil.[4]  And when God phrases it back to him in granting his request, God calls it “understanding to discern what is right,” or “discernment so as to acquire good judgment.”[5]  Wisdom is about discernment.  It’s about making judgments.  It’s about figuring out what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, what is from God and what is not.  When you use wisdom, you’re making a choice.  And the choice is influenced by what you know, what others advise, and from your gut.  Wisdom is not affected by how smart you are intellectually.  It’s governed by what you trust to guide you, whether that’s close friends, the Bible, your heart, or something else.  God speaks in different ways and he will guide you if you trust him and listen to whatever or whoever he’s speaking through.  There is lots of wisdom in the Bible, both in the form of what to do and what not to do, said explicitly in the form of rules and illustrated in stories.  To gain wisdom, to trust God to guide you in what’s right and wrong and learn how God does so, is a slow process.  It doesn’t happen over night.  It takes time and forming the habit of chewing on the words of Scripture.  If you need a place to start, the past three Sundays we’ve been reading from Ephesians and it’s been chockfull of wisdom.[6]  A lot of it, including today’s reading, has to do with what builds up the body of Christ.  Be careful how you live.  Don’t be foolish.  Don’t lie.  Don’t steal.  Watch the way you talk.  Don’t be bitter but be kind.  Lead a life worthy of the calling you have received.  There are some words to chew on.  What’s it mean to live a life worthy of the calling you’ve received?  First, what is your calling?  And then how do you live accordingly?  Chew on that for a while, and you’ll gain some wisdom. 

            Most wisdom comes through ordinary people, like the bible writers, not from scholars in ivory towers.  It’s within everyone’s grasp.  And the goal of wisdom is a well-ordered life and a peaceful mind.  It’s a way of living in the world such that God and God’s intentions for the world are acknowledged in all we do.[7]  It’s not the result of a high IQ but from a heart attitude that the bible calls “the fear of the Lord.”  The bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,”[8] whether it’s to “speak the truth in love”[9] or “don’t paint your face with a screwdriver.”

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[1] http://www.theparentingdad.com/

[2] 1 Kings 3:7-9

[3] 1 Kings 3:3; Deuteronomy 12:2

[4] 1Kings 3:9

[5] 1Kings 3:11

[6] Ephesians 4:1-16; 4:25-5:2; 5:15-20

[7] Ellen Davis, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs

[8] Psalm 111:10

[9] Ephesians 4:15

A Day of Rejoicing - A Meditation on Psalm 130

I love Psalm 130 and yet for last night's Christian Expressions, I had a hard time deciding between the NRSV and the NIV.  They're similar, and yet different.  The NIV has plainer language, such as "sins" instead of "iniquities," and a couple other different phrasings, like "so that we can, with reverence, serve you" instead of "so that you can be revered."  The one point I like better in the NRSV is v. 5-6, which say "my soul waits for the Lord" instead of "I wait for the Lord" and I like that better.  It resonates more with me that my soul waits for the Lord and not my ego or my being, but my soul.  "I wait for the Lord" or "my whole being waits for the Lord" doesn't strike as deep a chord as "my soul" does.  "I wait for the Lord" doesn't feel very different from "watchmen waiting for the morning," whereas "my soul waiting for the Lord" feels very different.  "My soul waits" is a different kind of waiting.  It doesn't know when it will happen, although watchmen always know when morning will come.  Watchmen feel like a more resigned waiting, you can't hurry it, but my soul is expectant and longs for it to happen.  My soul feels like more of an active waiting, I know it's coming, I don't know when, I can't wait for the Lord to come, from something deep within me, primeval even.  But watchmen are just doing a job, watching the clock.  They know things will be safe when the sun rises and their job is over, for 12 more hours.  Do I know things will be safe when the Lord comes?  Yes, kinda.  Although I don't know that God is "safe."  Reminds me of the quote from the Chronicles of Narnia where Lucy says something to the effect of "Aslan isn't a tame lion."  And I don't know that things will be safer when the Lord comes than they are now.  "My soul waits for the Lord and in his word I put my hope" - that gives me confidence and security now.  That gives me a feeling of safety now, though "a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, it will not come near you" (Psalm 91:7).  I feel safe, I am safe, now.  I don't know whether things will be safer when the Lord comes.  I'm not really worried about it.  I am safe now, because God has me in his hands.  Yes, I'm still going to lock my doors at night and not drive crazily, but I am safe now.  My soul waits for the Lord, but not in order to feel or be safe.  Safety's got nothing to do with it.  My soul waits for the Lord because "what a day of rejoicing that will be!" (United Methodist Hymnal 701).

6 Things I've Learned about Chapel Hill in 13 Months

I have officially been serving in Chapel Hill for 13 months and thought it was time to reflect on what I've learned about this town.  Granted, I was 14 the first time I visited Chapel Hill, but here's what I've learned after more extensive time spent among the townies:

1. There actually is a hill.  Only, just like Crabtree Valley in Raleigh, you can't always tell it's there depending on which road you take to get here.

2. Not everyone is a Tar Heel.  Probably about 95%, but there are some Duke fans, NC State fans, Virginia Tech fans, etc., who have snuck in.

3. Not everyone leans left.  Chapel Hill and abutting Carrboro are known for being liberal, but there are some conservatives and moderates around, too. 

4. Not everyone is in Chapel Hill because of UNC.  Some folks think it's a great place to live and commute elsewhere in the Triangle for work, some moved here for family, others are from families who preceded the university and have been here since forever. 

5. There's more to Chapel Hill than Franklin Street.  Sure, it's the main place for university students, but locals know about other places...

6. Finally, there's an interesting relationship between the town and the church, or maybe the town and religion, I'm not sure.  Chapel Hill is as picky as Cary, NC is about town ordinances and permits (Cary once ruled that the Gypsy Shiny Diner was too shiny and the restaurant had to plant big bushes around the building), but church members here imply their town's pickiness towards us is because we're a church.  The process to construct the new parking lot involved a lot of bureaucracy; I can only imagine it'll be worse when we build the new building.  It was also really weird during the 7 p.m.. Christmas Eve service to have the police pull someone over and they turned into our driveway and stopped directly in front of the sanctuary doors during the sermon!

Genesis 12:1-8 - The Promised Land

 
v. 1 - GO:
Kansas City
Cairo
Austin
Germantown
Asheboro
Cary
St. Louis
Madrid
Roanoke
Philadelphia
Apex
Morrisville
Nicaragua
Durham
Raleigh
Grimesland
Chapel Hill

v. 4 - So Abram went.

v. 5 - And they arrived there.

They arrived there.  They arrived where God told them to go.  They reached the end of their journey.  They arrived.

This is unlike all those saints listed in Hebrews 11 who did not receive what was promised.  Abram and Sarai did arrive in the promised land.  And yet Hebrews 11:9 says they lived there as in a foreign land, which I suppose it was, actually, and lived in tents, which are not permanent dwelling places.  Abram arrived, but didn't make himself at home.  He arrived... and yet he didn't.  Hebrews 11:10 says that even from the promised land he still looked forward to the city of God, even in the promised land.  Even having arrived, he was still a sojourner, still a stranger.  He made his home in the promised land and yet stayed a foreigner, an outsider.  He arrived.  He got where God told him to go.  He made his home in transitional housing.  Sounds like he never really felt he belonged.  That home was Harran and temporary home was Canaan.  Except Canaan was The Promised Land.

Sounds like the story of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S.  The U.S. is The Promised Land.  So many of them arrive, they make it here through all kinds of perils and hardships.  And they make their homes here, their children are born here, like Isaac and Jacob and Esau.  And so many of them live in non-permanent dwelling places - trailers, rented apartments, with extended family members.  Some have houses, true.  But some also move around a lot.  They pitch their tents.  Their home is here and yet many of them remain sojourners and strangers.  Their home is here, they arrived in the promised land, and they're treated like outsiders.  "By faith Abram sojourned in the promised land as a foreigner... because he looked forward to the city of God" (paraphrase of Hebrews 11:9-10, RSV).  What does it look like to live in the promised land and yet stay a foreigner? Like the Hispanic immigrant experience in the U.S.  What would it look like for the rest of us to live in the promised land as foreigners?  Never truly home... because you're looking forward to the City of God.

The Zax: When Good Turns Bad, Things Get Ugly

Luke 15:11-31; Psalm 32

July 22, 2012

Today we are continuing our Dr. Seuss sermon series.  This is week three out of four of exploring how Dr. Seuss stories illuminate lessons from the Bible.  The parable of the prodigal son that we just read is familiar to most of us.  However, I don’t know that Dr. Seuss’s story of “The Zax” is as familiar.  It’s found in his collection of short stories called “The Sneetches and Other Stories” and it involves two Zax making tracks in the prairie of Prax. 

[8&11]: One Zax is a North-Going Zax and the other Zax is a South-Going Zax, and as you might imagine, the prairie of Prax isn’t big enough for the both of them.  As one goes north and one goes south, they bump into each other, foot to foot and face to face. 

          The North-Going Zax says, “Look here, now!  I say!  You are blocking my path.  You are right in my way.  I’m a North-Going Zax and I always go north.  Get out of my way, now, and let me go forth!”

“Who’s in whose way?” snaps the South-Going Zax.  “I always go south, making south-going tracks.  So you’re in MY way!  And I ask you to move  and let me go south in south-going groove.”

Then the North-Going Zax puffs his chest up with pride.  “I never take a step to one side.  And I’ll prove to you that I won’t change my ways if I have to keep standing here fifty-nine days!”

          And the South-Going Zax yells back, “I’ll prove to YOU that I can stand here in the prairie of Prax tor fifty-nine years!  For I live by a rule  that I learned as a boy back in South-Going School.  Never budge!  That’s my rule.  Never budge in the least!  Not an inch to the west!  Not an inch to the east!  I’ll stay here, not budging!  I can and I will if it makes you and me and the whole world stand still!”[1]

         

[9:00]: To help us out, I’ve asked two youth to play the parts of the two Zax.  Odom is the North-Going Zax and Nick is the South-Going Zax.

So… what happened here?  Neither Zax was willing to give in, willing to take just one step to the side so that they could continue their tracks.  They were each too proud, too stuck in their ways to even consider a compromise.  We are called to persevere and hold tight to our beliefs, but we must be willing to consider new ways to live out those beliefs.  Would stepping to one side, or each taking half a step so they could pass each other, have been a betrayal to their rules?  Yes, taking pride in your work, in your family, and in your church is a good thing.  But when pride makes you inflexible, it’s a problem.  When pride makes you think you don’t need anyone else, as in the case of the prodigal son, it’s a problem.  You see, the prodigal son, or, let’s just call him the younger brother, he thought he didn’t need anyone else to make his own way in the world.  He thought he could do it by himself, as long as he had his daddy’s money.  But he didn’t need his daddy, or any other member of his family.  His pride, in himself, turned into egotism and so he rudely demanded his half of the inheritance.  To do so in that culture meant that you considered your father dead to you.  And he not only acted as if his father were dead, but wanted his share NOW.  His pride had turned into ugly stubbornness.  It had to be his way and his timing.  And so, his dad acquiesces, even though it hurts.  When you’re confronted with someone and it’s their way or the highway, you’re not left with many choices.  I guess the dad figured he was losing his son either way, so at least this way, the son had some money to help him get by.  Ultimatums aren’t pretty because they force someone to act a certain way and love never forces.  That’s why although we persevere in the race set out before us and we hold tight to our beliefs, we remain open to new ways to faithfully live out those beliefs.  There’s more than one way of doing things well and change can be a good thing.  This Dr. Seuss sermon series is one example – I’ve never done anything like it and Pastor Ken, with his 25 years more of experience than me, only rarely has.  There is more than one way to persevere and be faithful. 

          The next lesson to learn from the Zax is that competition can bring out the best in us or the worst in us.  Healthy competition can bring out the best, it makes you work harder, study harder, strive to do better.  I remember in math class in high school where the teacher passed the tests back by row, so you took yours off the top and saw the grade of the person sitting behind you.  Chris always did better than me.  I studied more and would ace the test, and then I’d see his grade as I passed his paper back to him and he’d gotten the extra credit.  I don’t think I ever got a higher grade than him in that class.  But it made me study more.  Unfortunately, in the case of the Zax, I think it’s safe to say that this competition brought out the worst in them.  It’s like the staring contest, neither one is willing to blink first.  Or, how about sibling rivalry?  Can anyone relate to that?  It’s what we hear from the older brother after his younger brother returns:  “IT’S NOT FAIR!  Dad, how dare you accept your son back and not only that but throw him a party!  He’s thrown away the money you gave him and you welcome him home with a party?!?!  I’ve spent my whole life working for you, I’ve never disobeyed you or disowned you, like this other son of yours.  And you welcome him back?!”  Anyone remember telling your parents it’s not fair over something your sibling did?  Or hearing it from your own kids?  I identify very well with the older brother in this story; I get him and where he’s coming from.  Any other obedient oldest siblings out there, you do everything you’re asked and are perfectly obedient?  And yet your parents still love your younger siblings, too [sigh].  I was in my early 20s before I ever began to understand either the youngest son or the father and see a different point of view in this parable besides the older brother’s.  Friendly rivalry is one thing; fanaticism, like to the point of the riots that happen with some soccer matches in the rest of the world, is totally different.  In Egypt this past February, 73 fans were killed in a riot at a soccer game, the deadliest riot since 1996 when 78 fans were killed at a match in Guatemala.[2]  That’s extreme fanaticism that brings out the worst.  Or, let’s bring it a little closer to home.  You know, it was in school that those two Zax were trained to never budge.  They didn’t come up with it on their own.  Now, I was raised a Duke fan.  My parents both went to undergrad at Duke.  We lived lots of places while I was growing up, not moving to North Carolina until I was in high school.  When we moved here, I quickly learned that you had to have a favorite out of Duke, UNC, and NC State, and I was glad I already had one.  However, what I also learned was that you had to hate the other two schools.  You couldn’t even wear those schools’ colors.  My mom went back to school for her master’s at UNC a year after we moved here and in support of her I wore a UNC Nursing shirt.  It was gray with navy lettering, no light blue or UNC symbol anywhere on it, and I was still given a hard time by my friends for wearing a UNC shirt.  One of the best side effects of dating my husband was that I could add red back to my wardrobe, since he’s a State grad.  I had been trained as a child to love Duke; I had not been trained to hate UNC or State.  And, honestly, since I’ve been serving here, I’ve even added a little light blue back to my wardrobe, too.  Let competition and rivalry bring out the best, not the worst in you. 

Unlike most Dr. Seuss stories, the Zax has an unhappy ending.  Neither Zax budges, and, of course, the world doesn’t stand still and wait for them.  The last picture in the story is of how the new highway was built right over those two stubborn Zax and civilization was built around them.  The Zax stay un-budged in their tracks, their conflict unresolved.  Similarly, Jesus doesn’t give a resolution to the parable.  We don’t know what the older son decides to do, whether to join the party or to stay mad out in the fields.  What we do know is the father’s response to his sons.  His younger son he immediately welcomes, accepts, and forgives.  There is no hesitation.  The father, of course, represents God in this story, and God is always ready to forgive, no matter how extreme the transgression.  God waits with open arms to receive us back, and he’s willing to let the past be the past.  This is what’s not fair and what the older brother complains about.  To him, the father responds very graciously: “Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours – but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!”  The father wants to include both his sons in this celebration.  Those of us who have been Christians all our lives don’t need to be jealous of new Christians.  Those of us who have been church members since we were in utero don’t need to feel threatened by regular visitors.  There is enough room here for everybody.  God wants to include everybody and is willing to forgive everything.  God’s the example of extreme forgiveness and it’s not ugly.  It’s a risk, yeah.  It may mean getting told “I told you so.”  It may mean discovering the long-forgotten cause of a rift from decades ago.  God forgives you and he wants you to forgive others, just as you have been forgiven.  We don’t know if the older brother forgives his younger brother for running off.  But I hope today that you will forgive whoever has wronged you.  It’s part of the Lord’s Prayer, right?  “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.”  I don’t know who’s trespassed against you.  I don’t know what grudge you’re carrying.  But let it go.  There’s never been a better time to risk healing a broken relationship than today. 

[8&11]: As we’re about to sing, today is a day of new beginnings.  Verse three says “let us, with the Spirit’s daring, step from the past and leave behind our disappointment, guilt, and grieving, seeking new paths, and sure to find.”  The altar is always open if you’d like to come up to pray.  I could be wrong, but I’m guessing there’s something either you need to be forgiven of or you need to forgive someone else of.  So take a moment and do so.  What have you got to lose? 

[9:00]: Today is a day of new beginnings.  And it’s all you have.  I could be wrong, but I’m guessing there’s something either you need to be forgiven of or you need to forgive someone else of.  Let’s take a moment and pray, shall we?

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[1] “The Zax” in The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss, 1961.

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/world/middleeast/scores-killed-in-egyptian-soccer-mayhem.html